Scare
by FatBoyTorres
Summary: One shot. Callie finds out about Arizona's cancer scare.


Callie was beside herself as she sat in her first class seat on the 8:10 PM flight to Seattle from New York. She'd gotten off the phone with one of her friends from Seattle earlier in the evening and was informed that Arizona possibly had breast cancer. As she hung up the phone, she was on auto pilot; booking a flight, packing a few things in a backpack, and ordering a Lyft. From the time she hung up to the time she boarded the plane, less than 3 hours had elapsed.

The ex wives hadn't really spoken in nearly 6 months, at least not at length. Their conversations consisted of "Hi, I'll get Sofia for you," before the phone was passed off to the small girl. Callie had hated that they acted as strangers now, but she knew most of the blame was on herself, and now she just had to make it right.

But now, as Callie sat in a rental car outside her ex wife's home, she began chastising herself.

"You look like a damned creeper, Torres. It's…" Callie glanced down at her watch, "4:23 AM and you're sitting on a residential road, staring at someone's house. You're just asking for someone to call the cops."

Callie dropped her head back, letting out a loud sigh. She sat there for long minutes, she wasn't sure how long, but as she started feeling sleep take over her, a knock on her window jolted her awake.

"Fucking hell!"

Callie sat up, looking out the driver side window, to see her ex wife with a rather perplexed looked on her face and rolled down her window.

"Callio… Callie, what are you doing outside my house at 5 in the morning?"

Callie pretended to miss Arizona's slip up on her name, "I uh… I talked to nurse Rebecca last night."

"Ok? Who is nurse Rebecca and what does that have to do with you being in Seattle on a Tuesday morning?"

Callie took a deep breath, "Rebecca Polk works at the same hospital as Doctor Hansen…"

Stepping back, Arizona motioned for Callie to follow her, "Why don't we head inside? I'm not too keen on my neighbors seeing me in a robe."

"Right," Callie nodded, rolling up her window and shutting off the rental car before following Arizona into her house.

As they walked inside, Callie couldn't help the smile that graced her features; this house was so very Arizona with it's pastel colored walls and furniture, framed photos littering the walls, fire place mantel, and any other flat surface she could see. But one photo on the wall entering the kitchen caught her eye. There, on the wall, was the first family photo they'd taken; Mark stood with a large smile spread across his face as he towered over his daughter's mothers, Arizona beaming, blonde hair flowing effortlessly, and Callie herself cradling their daughter, a smile so wide, she remembers how bad her cheeks hurt after. Seeing this photo, a few tears escaped without Callie's permission.

"Sofia has the same one framed on her nightstand." Arizona spoke with a sad smile, "I do, too, actually."

Callie's eyes flew up to the blonde's, "Y-you have a picture with me in it by your bed?"

"Two, actually. I have this one and then a picture of us on our wedding day, holding Sofia." Turning toward the kitchen, Arizona wiped away a tear before Callie could see it, "Do you want a drink? I have coffee, tea, and juice."

Callie simply shook her head.

"Ok, so, tell me again why you're here?"

"Don't you have to get ready for work? Or get Sofia ready? I can come back later."

This time Arizona shook her head, "I took today off and Sofia spent the night at Mer's. I know it's a school night but I really needed to be alone."

There was a long, heavy pause before Callie spoke, "What stage is it? I'll be here every step of the way, Arizona."

"I don't have breast cancer, Callie."

"But, Polk said you saw Hansen and that you were there with some guy and that you left crying. Why didn't you tell me you thought you had breast cancer? You should have called me!" Callie didn't mean to, but she was getting angry with her ex wife, and she hated herself for it.

"Don't tell at me," Arizona spoke just above a whisper. "First of all, we're divorced. Why would I have said anything to you? You have a girlfriend in New York. You shouldn't even be here."

"Penny and I broke up. A while ago. Like before Sofia even came to live with you. But that isn't the point, whether I have a girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, or whatever, you should have called me. You shouldn't go through this by yourself, Arizona. I should be here!"

"And why should you be here?" Arizona asked.

"Because I love you, damn it! I love you and I hate that I wasn't here when the woman I love found out she has breast cancer!"

Arizona stared at her ex wife, "I don't have breast cancer, Calliope. Doctor Hansen has been faking scans and other tests, making women believe they had breast cancer and go through chemo for the money. The guy I was at the hospital with was Owen. I had a patient who said she did her second round of chemo, but when I did scans, there was absolutely no sign of any kind of cancer. Because of that, I checked some of his records and it wasn't sitting right with me. Owen and I played happy couple, Doctor Hansen did an ultrasound on me and there was a fairly sizable mass. Obviously, I freaked out. Owen brought me back to Grey-Sloan and I asked April to do an ultrasound and there was nothing there. No cancer, no mass, nothing. I do not have cancer."

"You don't?"

Arizona simply shook her head, tears now running freely down her face.

Before Arizona even really knew what was happening, Callie's lips were on her own. It wasn't a long kiss, less than five seconds maybe, but it felt like ages to Arizona. When Callie pulled away, the brunette stared into bright blue eyes, a smile on her face.

"You cut your hair."

Callie couldn't help the chuckle that fell from her lips, "You just noticed that?"

"No, I actually noticed it about 10 minutes before I went outside and knocked on your window but you were too busy talking about my boobs for me to say anything."

Shrugging, Callie chuckled again, "They're good boobs. And the person they happen to be attached to is someone very important to me and I really don't want to see anything bad happen to that person."

Arizona smiled, pulling Callie to sit on the couch next to her and laid her head on the brunette's shoulder, "I'm really glad you're here. I've missed you so much but I've been afraid to say it. Last time I said it, said that I loved you and was glad we were working on things, you left."

"I'm not leaving again, Arizona," Callie whispered as she ran her fingers through blonde waves. "I was a fool to ever walk away and, unfortunately, it took the possibility of losing you, forever, to make me see that. Almost losing you drove us apart in the first place, but then you healed and everything was ok again. Life went back to normal, for the most part, and we grew. But this time? I had no control over this. I was half way across the country and a friend violating HIPAA sent my world into a tailspin. I can't lose you, Arizona. Not again."

"You're not losing me, Calliope. I'm here and I plan on staying for a long time."

Things were silent, save for the ticking of the clock over the kitchen entrance, and the breathing of the two women entangled in each other on the couch. It had been maybe two minutes before Arizona realized Callie's breathing had become erratic and a small sniffle was heard. The blonde sat up, taking her ex wife's face in her hands and kissing her softly.

"I'm not dying, Calliope, I promise," Arizona's voice was barely above a whisper. "Come upstairs and lay down with me, I need more sleep and I'm pretty sure you haven't gotten any."

Callie didn't bother with any kind of protest as Arizona pulled her off the couch and toward the stairs. Once they'd entered the master bedroom, Arizona guided her ex wife to the bed and began unbuttoning the taller woman's shirt before pushing it off her shoulders.

"Arizona, we can't."

"Then we won't, but, I need some human contact right now." Arizona spoke as she reached down to undo the brunette's jeans, "I need the physical contact of skin on skin; your skin on mine. And I think it might help you, too."

Callie stood before the blonde, shirt gone and pants hanging open at her hips, and leaned forward to untie the blonde's robe finding her almost completely naked underneath, just a small pair of bright pink panties covering the fair skin.

"You're not dying?"

Arizona shook her head again, saying nothing as she gently pushed Callie onto the bed before situating herself half on top of her ex wife.

Callie followed suit, keeping silent as she wrapped an arm around the blonde's midsection and snuck a leg between Arizona's. One strong, tanned hand came up to gently caress the skin of a pale breast, as innocently as possible, clearly thinking only of the mass and cancer that never was. As her fingers glided across the swell of Arizona's breast, Callie's breathing began to even out, and within minutes, she was sound asleep.

Arizona looked up at Callie's peaceful face, asleep without a worry, and kissed her gently before whispering an 'I love you, too' and drifting off to sleep herself.


End file.
